• Home
  • About
    • Meet Kristin
  • The Book
  • Podcast
  • Blog
    • Spiritual Direction
    • Turquoise Table Stories
    • Recipe Collection
    • 5-Day Meet Your Neighbors Challenge
    • Conversations
  • Spiritual Direction
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
  • About
    • Meet Kristin
    • Meet the Team
  • Start Here
  • Join the Community
  • Register Your Table
  • The Book
  • Podcast
  • Blog
    • Turquoise Table Stories
    • Suppers for Sharing
    • Recipes
    • Conversations
  • Media
  • Speaking
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter

The Turquoise Table

Kristin Schell

  • Start Here
  • Register Your Table
  • The Community

in Conversations

Mia’s Spanish Gazpacho

Mia the night before I was born, August 9, 19

This picture was taken the night before Mia entered the sacred club called Motherhood. She wasn’t called Mia back then, of course. Surely her thoughts never ran wild enough to imagine a day when nine grandchildren would holler for their Mia at a lake house full laughter and love. That’s me in her belly. I’m not sure if my father snapped the photo before or after they went for dinner and the infamous slice of strawberry shortcake at the old Highland Park Cafeteria. I’ll never tire of hearing the story of the night before I was born.

Mia, Nana, Me August 1968

Just a few days later I’m snuggled in my mother’s arms next to my grandmother, Nana. I love this photo. It’s one of the few I have of the three of us–me, my mother, and hers. Three generations of mamas.

Mia and Will, Mother's Day 2002

Three decades later, my mama with my first born. We gave ourselves a photography session for Mother’s Day in 2002. Although only 1/2 of the Littles had debuted in our lives at that point. I look at this picture the way Mia must look at the ones of me and my younger siblings as a babies. Wondering where the time has gone and how quickly these babies grow. I’d put the proverbial brick on their heads, but the anticipation of adding to our collection of photos with grand babies of my own one day outweighs the desire to stop time right now. Time is a funny thing. The days seem long, but the years are short.

I’ve inherited many good things from my mother and grandmothers. My father’s mother taught me to needlepoint at the age of nine and my earliest cooking memories pour forth from summers spent baking cookies and learning my way around her small but efficient kitchen. From Nana I claim the love of the written word. She was a writer and published poet. Quite extraordinary for a woman from a small Panhandle town. I have needlepoint pillows from Grandma scattered around the house and Nana’s yellow-paged short-stories and poems stored up like treasures of the heart.

From Mia, I am blessed to learn daily. She’s brought me up in faith. Worn out her knees as the most faithful prayer warrior I know. Even at forty-four, I hear every word she says, although like a teenager I don’t always acknowledge listening. But she knows.

When Susie & I decided to pay tribute to our mother’s today, I knew immediately I would share Mia’s Spanish Gazpacho. The recipe pre-dates me and if there is any one dish synonymous with my mother it’s gazpacho.

As a young bride in Caracas, Venezuela far away from home, my mother was lonely with only her new husband for a friend. The man they leased their barrio house from brought over his wife one day and she handed my mother a cookbook ¡Buen Provecho! The cookbook became my mother’s Spanish teacher and Josefina her friend. From this cookbook, Mia and her new friend Pepina made this traditional, cold soup. That was in 1967 and Mia has been making gazpacho ever since.

MIaKitchenWM

52 Sunday Suppers with Susie & KristinWeek 17 Menu: Mother’s Day Tribute

Mia’s Spanish Gazpacho

Print

Mia’s Spanish Gazpacho

Print Recipe

5 from 1 review

My mother learned to make gazpacho as a young bride in Venezuela. This Latin American traditional cold soup is a favorite in our family. Fresh, healthy, and beaming with flavor Spanish gazpacho is always a welcome addition to our supper table.

  • Author: Vicki Kessler

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 (14 oz) can diced tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped green pepper
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped celery
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped cucumber, seeds removed
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
  • 1 teaspoon snipped parsley
  • 1 teaspoon snitpped chives
  • 1 small clove garlic, minced
  • 2–3 Tablespoons wine vinegar
  • 2 Tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire
  • 2 cups tomato juice

Instructions

  1. Combine all ingredients in glass or stainless steel bowl. Cover and chill thoroughly, at least 4 hours. Serve in chilled cups. This recipe is one from where we lived in South America. We’ve never found one better and our guests agree. Recipe only serves 2-4, so I always double.

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @kristinkschell on Instagram and hashtag it #frontyardpeople

What recipe reminds you most of your mother? In honor of Mother’s Day, please share her favorite dish on our 52 Sunday Suppers Facebook page.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Love,

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print

Filed Under: Conversations Tagged With: family, Gazpacho, Mother's Day, Venezuela

« Mealtime Prayers: On solid rock I stand
Kohlrabi and Lentil Soup »

Comments

  1. YM says

    at

    Flooded with tears and beautiful memories knowing it is ALL by Gods grace.

  2. Meredith says

    at

    Kristin, Thank you for sharing this recipe as well as the Mother’s Day pictures and captions of your Mother! She is a beautiful woman and I have had her Gazpacho once and she was kind enough to give me the special recipe. This is a beautiful Mother’s Day tribute to her to share her favorite recipe and story! Thank you. You are wonderful and beautiful as well!


  3. Megan Willome says

    at

    I was editing a recipe for gazpacho today and learned that it’s a Spanish dish. I always thought it was a Mexican dish because that’s where my mom learned to make it, and I think she had it in Chile, too.

Meet Kristin

Welcome! I'm so glad you're here.

I'm on a mission to love my neighbors. I put an ordinary picnic table in my front yard, painted it turquoise and invited neighbors, friends, and even strangers to hang out and do life together at the Turquoise Table®.

I hope you'll join us!

About Kristin

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

The Book

Buy Now

The Podcast

The Turquoise Table Podcast with Kristin Schell

Listen Now

Join the Movement

  • Start Here
  • Join the Community
  • Register Your Table
  • Your Tables

Subscribe for Updates

Quick Links

  • Media
  • Contact
Hook ‘em Ellie! We’re so proud of you, our lif Hook ‘em Ellie! We’re so proud of you, our lifelong Longhorn! Congrats on graduation —we love you so much and are so very proud of you! 🧡🤘🏽🧡
Final kindergarten chapel to final senior year cha Final kindergarten chapel to final senior year chapel. So grateful for St Matthew’s and Hyde Park for loving and raising up our four. If you need me I’m the mama crying buckets for the entire month of May as we celebrate two milestone graduations.
This lil nugget is 18! Oh Sarah how we love you! H This lil nugget is 18! Oh Sarah how we love you! Happy Birthday baby girl 💕🎂🥳🎁🎉
Happiest of hours. Oyster shooters in stories. 🦪
Happy 25th Will! We love you so much and I’m so Happy 25th Will! We love you so much and I’m so proud of you. Never grow too old for Puff the Magic Dragon, Baby Beluga and I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon. 🎂🥳🥰
Happy Birthday to my favorite Valentine baby! 22 l Happy Birthday to my favorite Valentine baby! 22 looks good on YOU. I love you so @ellieeschell 💘🎂🎉
Follow on Instagram

Copyright ©2005-2023 Kristin Schell · Site by Erin Ulrich Creative